Beef Stew (Spezzatino)
Beef Stew is a hearty meal perfect for a cold day in the winter. Its can be cooked in several different ways, braised in the oven for several hours, cooked in a crockpot or cooked in a pressure cooker. I mostly use my pressure cooker for this dish, but I have used the crockpot as well. The cut of meat you use is very important to get a tender hearty stew. I prefer using Chuck Roast that has a nicely marbled amount of fat on it for this dish.
Beef Stew (Spezzatino)
A hearty dish for a cold winter day.
Equipment
- Pressure cooker or Crockpot
Ingredients
- 3 lbs Chuck Roast Beef cubed
- 2 Carrots, medium size diced
- 4 oz Pearl Onion or 1 whole medium onion large dice
- 3-4 Russet Potatoes diced
- 2 Bay Leaves
- 2 tbsp Tomato Paste
- 5 cups Beef Broth
- 1/2 cup Red wine anything you would drink
- 1 cup frozen Peas **optional
- 3/4 – 1 cup Flour for dredging
- S&P to taste
Instructions
- Start by peeling and chopping all the vegetables. Place the diced potatoes in cold water while you sear the meat, so they do not oxidize.
- Place flour, salt and pepper into a ziploc bag. Add the stew meat and shake to coat.
- Into a saute pan, sear the meat on all sides in olive oil. Remove the meat and set aside. Add tomato paste and cook for a minuted, then deglaze the pan with red wine, scraping the bits off the pan. Set aside.
- Add the stew meat to either a crockpot or pressure cooker. Then add all the vegetables, beef broth and bay leaves. Pour the liquid from the saute pan in, that's the flavor! Adjust to taste with salt and pepper.
- ***If adding peas, add them in after the stew has cooked and let it simmer for about 10mins to cook the peas through.
- If the stew is too thin for your liking, you can take 1/2 cup of the liquid and add a tbsp of flour to it. Mix well and add it back in. Stir to combine well and let it simmer for a fews mins to thicken.
- Pressure cook for 40 minutes or cook in a crockpot for 8 hours on high. You can also cook this in a stockpot/dutch oven for 2 -3 hours, until fork tender.
- Remove the bay leaves before serving.
